Comp. also Neander (I. 1), Lange (II. 13), Ewald (VI. 106), Thiersch (p. 65, 3d ed.), Schaff (191
and 469), Farrar (St. Paul, ch. V. vol. I. 83).
The ascension of Christ to heaven was followed ten days afterwards by the descent of the Holy
Spirit upon earth and the birth of the Christian Church. The Pentecostal event was the necessary
result of the Passover event. It could never have taken place without the preceding resurrection and
ascension. It was the first act of the mediatorial reign of the exalted Redeemer in heaven, and the
beginning of an unbroken series of manifestations in fulfilment of his promise to be with his people
"alway, even unto the end of the world." For his ascension was only a withdrawal of his visible
local presence, and the beginning of his spiritual omnipresence in the church which is "his body,
the fulness of him that filleth all in all." The Easter miracle and the Pentecostal miracle are continued
and verified by the daily moral miracles of regeneration and sanctification throughout Christendom.
We have but one authentic account of that epoch-making event, in the second chapter of
Acts, but in the parting addresses of our Lord to his disciples the promise of the Paraclete who
should lead them into the whole truth is very prominent,^252 and the entire history of the apostolic
church is illuminated and heated by the Pentecostal fire.^253
Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day after the Passover-Sabbath,^254 was a feast of joy and gladness,
in the loveliest season of the year, and attracted a very large number of visitors to Jerusalem from
foreign lands.^255 It was one of the three great annual festivals of the Jews in which all the males
were required to appear before the Lord. Passover was the first, and the feast of Tabernacles the
third. Pentecost lasted one day, but the foreign Jews, after the period of the captivity, prolonged it
to two days. It was the "feast of harvest," or "of the first fruits," and also (according to rabbinical
tradition) the anniversary celebration of the Sinaitic legislation, which is supposed to have taken
place on the fiftieth day after the Exodus from the land of bondage.^256(^252) John 14:6, 26; 15:26; 16:7. The preparatory communication of the Spirit is related in John 20:22.
(^253) Comp. especially the classical chapters on the gifts of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12, 13, and 14, and Rom. 12.
(^254) The Greek name ἡ πεντηκοστή (ἡμέρα) is used (like quinquagesima) as a substantive, Tob. 2:1; 2 Macc. 12:32; Acts 2:1;
20:16; 1 Cor. 16:3, and by Josephus, Ant. III. 10, 6, etc. It survives not only in all the Romanic languages, but also in the German
Pfingsten. The English Whit-Sunday is usually derived from the white garments of the candidates for baptism worn on that day
(hence Dominica alba); others connect it with wit, the gift of wisdom from above. The Hebrew names of the festival are הַ
גחַ, ἑορτὴ θερισμοῦ, the feast of harvest (Ex. 23:16), וירִכּבּוּהַ ווׄי and ἡμέρα τῶν νέων, day of the first fruits (Num. 28:26),
ﬠָבֻשׁ חַ, ἑορτὴ ἑβδομάδων, ἁγία ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδων, festival of (seven) weeks, as the harvest continued for seven weeks (Deut.
16:9, 10; Lev. 23:15; Tob. 2:1). It began directly after the Passover with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley-harvest, and
ended at Pentecost with the offering of the first two loaves from the wheat-harvest.
(^255) Josephus speaks of "many tens of thousands being gathered together about the temple" on Pentecost, Ant. xiv. 13, 4; comp.
xvii. 10, 2; Bell Jud. II. 3, 1. The Passover, of course, was more numerously attended by Jews from Palestine; but distant foreigners
were often prevented by the dangers of travel in the early spring. Paul twice went to Jerusalem on Pentecost, Acts 18:21; 20:16.
Many Passover pilgrims would naturally remain till the second festival.
(^256) Hence called the feast of the joy of the Law ( ִמְשִׁ). The date of Sinaitic legislation is based on a comparison of Ex.
12:2 with 19:1 (comp. my Hist. of the Ap. Ch., p. 192, note 5). The legislation on Pentecost, Deut. 16:9-12, represents it as a
feast of rejoicing, and concludes with a reference to the bondage in Egypt and the commandments of Jehovah. Otherwise there
is no allusion in the Bible, nor in Philo nor Josephus, to the historical significance of Pentecost. But there was a Jewish custom
which Schöttgen (Hor. Heb. in Acts 2:1) traces to apostolic times, of spending the night before Pentecost in thanksgiving to God
for the gift of the law. In the present Jewish observance the commemoration of the Sinaitic legislation is made prominent. Some
Jews "adorn their houses with flowers and wear wreaths on their heads, with the declared purpose of testifying their joy in the
possession of the Law."
A.D. 1-100.